Chocolate Cheesecake
by LunaEsLoca
Summary: My opinion of what happens when CHB gets to the Roman camp. The guys get things screwed up, how do they fix it. Percabeth Jasper and Thalico. Discontinued.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Do you really think that if I was Rick Riordan and I owned PJO that I would be here?**

Annabeth's POV

Piper and I sat on our bunks on the Argo II, both our eyes brimming with tears, but somehow, so shocked, tired and sad we couldn't find the energy to actually bring ourselves to cry. Thalia was at the Demeter (Ceres, whatever) cabin getting us some chocolate cheesecake. You see, a super long time ago, like as soon as I joined the group with Thalia and Luke, Thals and I had a sort of unspoken agreement that we would never eat chocolate cheesecake unless one of us got dumped.

Then Piper came to camp and she and I got so close so fast and Thals loved her as a sister almost immediately as well. We had to let her in on the tradition. It's kind of like our unofficial pack of eternal sisterhood.

And when we showed up at the Roman camp, well lets just say the three of us were already about as PMS as you can get without actually PMS-ing, and had been the whole journey to the Roman camp. Me and Piper both had pretty obvious reasons why- I didn't know if Percy would remember me or not, and he might have another girlfriend by now, and for Piper, well Jason had already told her he couldn't remember either way about being in a relationship when he disappeared. But Piper was no idiot and knew that meant 'I might have another girlfriend at the Roman camp and you know she'll remember me.'

Thalia's reason was completely the opposite of obvious- you wouldn't know it unless you were her closest friends as me and Piper are. And what we knew for that no body else did, not even Lady Artemis, was that for the past 4 months, Thalia and Nico had secretly been a couple. Now she knew about a lot of times he had gone on dates in the past because he was just starting to get dates when they started doing their whole secret couple thing and he needed to keep going on dates or people would start getting suspicious.

Anyways we'd traveled for about a month and before we left Nico shadow-traveled with Jason to the Roman camp to scout ahead, then visit his dad because it was so close. He shadow traveled Jason back not two hours later, then left again and hadn't come back.

Back to the present. When we got to the Roman camp, everyone came off the ship to go introduce ourselves, but in the front was Jason and Piper to his left, me to Piper's left, and Leo to his right, Thalia to Leo's right because she was Jason's sister and all. We walked into the camp and were attacked. Just the 5 of us had entered and so just the 5 of us were attacked for the moment. A strategy invented by a child of Athena if I ever saw one: they obviously knew those of us inside the borders would defend ourselves. But by not venturing outside the borders they gave the rest of us a choice that would give them some insight to whether or not we were a threat.

Of course everyone had strict orders that they were to stand down unless acting in self defense and that they were not to intentionally provoke anyone. For this crucial stage, we had Clarisse up front. She being the head counselor of the war god's cabin knew how crucial it was that we combine our strength for the war against Gaia and how damaging even one camper attacking could be to that effort. She understood perfectly well that anyone who attacked would have to be taken down at all costs, even if it meant a serious injury.

Of course her job was made easier by her skill at crowd control, which mostly stemmed from the fact that the newbies were all terrified of her and even many of those not scared of her could not best her in battle. She mainly had to watch out for the rest of her siblings. For that task she took a deep breath, and did something that would have been stupid coming from anyone other than her. She took one step inside the border. I'm sure she could see just as I did the tension that gathered in the stances of the Roman warriors who thought we hadn't noticed them as they prepared to attack in earnest. I'm sure she could sense just as easily as I could that weight was being shifted to back feet and leaned backwards to add to forward momentum when they moved.

And then she did the single most stupid and brave thing I had ever seen (well except Silena Beauregard pretending to be Clarisse and taking on a drakon). She turned around. Only then did she draw her weapons. And I knew the look on her face said that she meant business and that if you tried to get past her she would kill you if she had to.

Luckily no one tried to. I heard a couple Apollo campers dropping their weapons to run to the border to assist anyone who may need it.

A younger daughter of Poseidon (actually Neptune because this was the Roman camp) was fighting Leo. It looked like they were evenly matched because she was younger and not as strong but looked like she'd had plenty of practice with more basic moves and controlling small amounts of water. Leo was newer but was a natural fighter, having always fought his way through existence, plus he was a fire user so….

Thals was up against a boy who looked similar to Clarisse and her siblings. I'm guessing he was a son of Mars (Ares Roman aspect) but whoever his godly parent was, he was holding his own in that he wasn't dead yet, but Thalia looked like she got the much better end of things. She looked to have a minor cut on her arm and a slightly deeper gash on her other shoulder, but even as a huntress, and the Lieutenant of Artemis, for close rage combat she still used her spear and Aegis. I had to smirk a little because he seemed to be trying not to show weakness but was getting drained for it and now seemed to be flinching a bit each time Thalia brought Aegis up to meet and deflect his sword.

Piper was up against a girl who looked as if she was at ease with this and had been fighting her whole life but Piper gritted her teeth and darted in with Katoptris. Which surprised me because I knew full well that she'd only had time to learn defensive Roman tactics. And by that I mean she'd learned how to block Roman attacks.

But she was performing with a passable blend of Roman offense and Greek offense and defense. Hmm. Have to ask about that later.

Anyways I really didn't have time to focus on any of this (I wasn't focusing, I was just observing) because I was fronted with a little raven haired fury of my own. She came flying at me sword at the ready before I even had my knife out.

But that didn't matter because I was wearing the boots of a hunter (no not hunter/huntress of Artemis, just a hunter like think Katniss Everdeen's boots) and that's where my knife was (down my boot for those of you who are slow, so I just stomped my foot on the ground a little bit and the dagger came flying up out of my boot and into my waiting hand. Nightmare, my new nickname for little miss wetback over here, had about half a millisecond to laugh before I punched a button on my watch and my video shield spiraled to life, not even half way open before I attacked.

And then things went like this:

Lunge, recover and strike at shield shoulder simultaneously.

_Counter, attack, lunge, cut, roll._

Deflect sword point at lunge, jump above sword at cut, flip over the top of her, land in front as Nightmare recovers from roll.

Etc. So on and so forth it went. This girl was a machine but I thought her fighting style was like a Roman Clarisse. All fight no strategy. And she was already distracted by my video shield, and her ease and efficiency at Roman legion training was all but worthless because I had made a point of being skilled in Roman legion training. So skilled in fact, that I would switch back and forth between the two without realizing it (something I was only made aware of after sparring with Jason- excuse me for being a daughter of Athena, all I see is that this move would work and then that opens up a hole for this, etc. Not Greek vs. Roman).

And as this was happening I started letting out every bit of rage of the girlfriend who's boyfriend got stolen from her and dumped on the other side of the country with no memory.

And here's where the whole chocolate cheesecake issue comes in. I was winning, and I had only just realized that I had a pretty deep cut my shoulder that was gonna sting like Hades to get treated. And we had everything under control. We were all winning or evenly matched pro Greek, because we knew very well that we would probably be killed if we were bested.

That was before Nico shadow-traveled into the middle of the Greeks and happened to be right next to a girl who was crazy obsessed with him. An Aphrodite girl named Barret. And what did she do? Out of all the things in the world she could have done she kissed him, full on the mouth. It was almost funny to see him: his classic but perfect dear-in-the-headlights look, the pure shock in his eyes as he nearly crossed them to look down at the girl who'd suctioned herself to his face. His whole body frozen and stiff. He could do nothing but stare and I could tell he was letting his jaw drop out pure shock and idiocy.

Then his hands went to her hips in an effort to remove this deadweight from his mouth. And that's when Thalia circled around and saw him. Her fury was indescribable, and the only thing you could her over the thunder was her screech of, "ENOUGH!"

Then the poor Mars boy who she was fighting happened to be the closest living organism to her and she fried him nearly to a crisp. He was going to be in the infirmary for at least a week maybe a month.

Most people have stopped fighting at this point. Just Jason and I are left fighting our opponents. Come to think of it, I never got a look at who Jason was matched up against. I continue fighting but my focus isn't really of Nightmare anymore as I quickly disarm her and launch myself towards Jason and his raven haired, green eyed opponent.

Jason is on the ground and the gods only know why anyone would ever have enough kelp in their head to turn their back on their opponent, but at the moment Jason's sword was pointed at the small of Seaweed Brains back and all I could do was put myself between his back and the blade.

The knife pierced my skin at my hip and it burned so much that all I could do was struggle to prop myself up on one elbow and whisper, "Seaweed Brain," before a brunette ball of frills and lace runs over and squeals as she jumps into my Seaweed Brain's arms and plants her lips firmly on his.

I threw my knife as hard as I could and it lodged into her calf. I was already struggling to my feet to retrieve my knife when I hear two more screams. One is Piper screaming, "Witch!" at Nightmare, and the other is Nightmare who has a dagger named Katoptris speared clean through her foot, and was plainly also sucking Jason's face off right before this incident. I grab Katoptris and Piper grabs my knife for me as Thalia helps me up and they both walk back with me to the Argo II, one of my arms slung over each of their shoulders. And then there were the stares of all the Romans boring into our backs not knowing what to think of these three girls who beat their best swordsmen and are walking away. Let's not forget the rest of Camp Half Blood. We could feel their stares boring into us as well, knowing the intense pain we all feel between kinship to one another and the monumental loss of two out of three. Last and certainly least we have the parade of exes following us, drowning us with 'I can explain' s and from Percy 'I remember now' s.

And we are full circle, Piper and I sitting on our bunks in the Argo II, the rest of camp getting settled in inside Camp SPQR. And Thalia was requisitioning a huge chocolate cheesecake from the Ceres/Demeter campers for the three of us to share.

We heard pounding on the gangplank and then once on deck it sounded like three different pairs of pounding feet. They reached the door and instead of knocking, burst in, not knowing that we would actually be in here. Piper and I both flew at them inflicting no major damage, but every thing we did hurt a lot now and would hurt like Hades later. Because Percy's invulnerability didn't keep him from getting the point.

Piper and I had both screamed at Nico to leave, and as he was already turning to shadow travel and we were basically done with him because Thalia would want a turn.

Finally I faltered as I tried to lunge forward on the same side I had been knifed in the hip. I fairly tumbled into Percy's arms. I guess he remembered, and I hoped it had something to do with me taking the knife for him, because as I was lying in his arms, he looked right into my eyes and said, "It's okay Wise Girl. It's okay,"

At this, a single tear leaked out of my eye. "No, it's not Seaweed Brain. No it's not because you didn't remember."

I could see this hurt him more than being stabbed in his Achilles spot a thousand times, but he had absolutely no clue how much he meant to me before I took that knife for me. At that point I was done, and Piper used charm-speak to get both of them to leave.

Outside we heard screaming, and then thunder followed by what sounded like Nico getting set to extra crispy.

Thalia walked in with her makeup running and smeared, holding our chocolate cheesecake.

And we all sat down to eat, not bothering to worry about the rest of the camp. They could deal. They had all three of the Mr. Perfect-s.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Lemme think … Um, no.**

**Annabeth's POV**  
>I couldn't bring myself to cry. It's like I'd run out of tears. Besides, I wasn't wasting any more time feeling sorry for myself and wallowing in self pity over a guy who dumped me.<p>

Do not get me wrong, I love him. I really do. I thought he would be forever and I still hope that someday he will be again. Not that I would ever tell anyone that. I told him from the beginning I would never make things easy for him. Never includes now.

Okay, so sitting in my bunk moping isn't even coming close to accomplishing my goal of ceasing to wallow in self pity. I mean I'm a daughter of Athena for crying out loud. I need to be helping plan. Watching the ocean always helps me calm down. Between the facts that it's the same color as Seaweed Brain's eyes (what in the name of Athena is wrong with me? I'm starting to sound like an obsessed, lovesick Aphrodite girl!) and the calm repetitiveness of the waves soothes me, how could it not.

No one else was up yet because it wasn't even close to dawn- think four A.M., so I was careful not to wake Piper or Thalia up as I got dressed and got by blueprint and design paper notebook, plus my dagger. As I turned to grab my Yankees cap, I noticed Nico curled in a ball at the foot of Thalia's bed, as if burying his face so he didn't see something he wasn't supposed to.

That was good. Thalia needed time to cool down so I hadn't mentioned anything, but as far as I could tell, he'd done nothing wrong. But maybe this would be sweet enough for Thalia to give him a chance to explain. Because when I say foot of her bed, I mean curled in ball on the floor with his face buried so he doesn't see anything he's not supposed to, up against the corner of the bed. It hurt I'd done it before when I'd stayed up to late working on Daedalus' laptop.

I slapped on my watch, crunched a square of ambrosia, and made to walk out the door. But something stopped me. Percy. He was lying on the steps outside the cabin (as in a cabin on a ship) door, asleep, like he was waiting for me.

He looked so peaceful while he was sleeping. And he was so adorable and sweet. It made me think about all the times throughout the school year that he fell asleep with his head on my lap while I was designing monuments for Olympus. I missed him so much it made my heart ache.

I must have been staring for at least a minute before my senses kicked in and my better judgment reminded me, No.

No matter how much I wished I could forgive him and everything would be okay again I couldn't because it wouldn't. The memory of betrayal would still be there and it wouldn't be like I knew it was nothing. The cut was too deep, I couldn't forgive him yet. He hurt me too much. I'm not healed on the inside yet; my shields went up the moment that brunette flew into his arms and they haven't come down. I'm not ready to get close to him again because I'm scared that it would just turn out to be me playing with fire again, and that I'd come out burned.

I leapt silently over him, and went to the training grounds to express my anger and hurt the only way I knew how- to fight, attack, and destroy. Because all of a sudden I was that little seven year old girl again who had just had all her trusts and confidences shattered, who was scared to get close to anyone because she was afraid they weren't permanent, weren't real. That little seven year old girl who learned to trust again, and then had that confidence shattered too. And as soon as that little seven year old girl learned to trust yet another time, almost ten years later, she's come full circle.

I realize that it's always been this way for me because I'd learned to channel my anger and hurt into survival. This at that time was being on the attack. And I also realize that even though in a lot of ways I've moved past that and am completely over it, in a lot of ways I'm still standing right there.


	3. Author's Note

**Author's Note: Omagosh I am so sorry I haven't updated for over a month. This chapter was really hard to write, because some of the stuff is kinda personally relatable. Plus I've been working on some original stories. Someday I'll get around to creating an account on FictionPress and when I do I'll let you know. Right now, I strongly encourage you to check out OMGBloodyHellFire's story "Talk to the Grips, Kiss My Pointe Shoes". It's really really good. Read it. **

**If you review the next chapter, or any of the chapters I have up so far, with an actual opinion, not including flames and squees, and actual pointers on what I do better, you get a virtual cookie. And a review from me on one or more of your stories, a shout out in my story and possibly a minor character in the story if your review was really helpful. **

**I am not afraid to read negative things, (nor tell you were you can shove your opinion if you present it as a flame) so I really want you to tell me what you didn't like about the story: what confused you, what I can do better, etc. But if you don't like one of the pairings, it's my story, not yours, so you can suck it if you want to be rude. Plus maybe I'm making a special effort to write it un-clichéd. So yeah. Review.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Guess what?! Still no.**

**Piper's POV:**

When I woke up Annabeth was gone. Thalia was still asleep, and Nico was huddled in a ball at the foot of her bed, which was really sweet, because it looked like he was going through a lot of grief to make an effort to make it up to Thalia and stay close by without offending her.

That was sweet. I didn't think he'd done anything wrong. I hoped Thalia would forgive him. They're so cute together. I mean they're basically inseparable whenever the Hunt visits Camp Half Blood. To everyone but me and Anna they are best friends. And that's what they act like as well. They don't act like some sort of lovesick fruity Aphrodite children's dream couple. They act like best friends who sort of slipped over the line of friendship and couple status somewhere along the line. Which is, I think, better than love at first sight. In a way they're like Percy and Annabeth, but more Goth. Except for if either of them heard me say that they'd probably try to kill me.

Anyway, I wanted to believe Jason last night, but I couldn't. Not yet at least. Someday maybe. But I couldn't focus on that right now. I had other things going on that were more important. I was on the original quest that started the process of unity between the camps. I knew Gaea's strength, how quickly it was rising. I knew her ways. I had to help. But first I had to train the Aphrodite cabin. There was no way I was going to be embarrassed in front of the Romans by letting them see how weak the rest of Aphrodite's children were.

I had to think about this. I could use charmspeak to help them learn faster, but they still had to train through basic movements. That would be a problem. Mitchell and Lacy were game. They would help, and I knew they would learn quickly: Mitchell was a guy, and even though he was a son of Aphrodite (really all he got from Aphrodite was about what I got from her- perception, ability to see chances, etc. but with a little more fashion sense and the like) that didn't mean he would want to get his butt whooped by a girl. Lacy never liked being known as the little Aphrodite girl. Yeah she was in tune with that stuff, but from what I can tell, she's a lot like people make Silena sound like.

Aphrodite's daughter for sure, but not a pathetic helpless girl. She was ready to make her own name. I bet Drew and her lot wouldn't fight me too much on this because I doubt any of them would be able to live with the shame of getting beat by "Dumpster Queen". Hmm.

Well that was all fine and dandy, but I needed a way to train them. A place, and some way to do it quickly. Ok maybe the stars and constellations, and staring at the night sky would help. Not really because Jason's a son of Jupiter. It was more about that time when I was out at Grandpa Tom's cabin with Dad and he showed me all the constellations, and told me the stories Grandpa Tom had told him.

But it was kinda partly because of Jason. Ugh. Damn him. I was fighting against a girl who looked to be a daughter of Ceres. And winning by charmspeaking myself into blending Greek and Roman offense passably. And when I finally won, I turned around, grinning, to see Jason kissing a girl I didn't even know. Jason was standing halfway turned away from Annabeth, with a nightmare of a wetback **(AN: I have nothing against Hispanics. I am just representing what I think Piper's thoughts would be if Reyna kissed Jason. Reyna is Hispanic in my story because the meaning of the name is Queen in Spanish. And if she was kissing Piper's boyfriend, Piper would be a bit biased.) **attached to his face.

I'm guessing that when Annabeth ran over to take the blow for Percy, Nightmare (do you like my new nickname for her?) noticed Jason and as Jason stood to help Annabeth (because they are friends after all, and I'm sure he felt guilty about hurting her) she attached herself to his face. You may be wondering where he finds fault in this. That would be the fact that he wasn't immediately detaching her from his face.

I vaguely remember that when I threw Katoptris at her and, screamed that she was a witch, she stopped kissing him and screamed when Katoptris went clean through her foot. And she landed on the ground. Which means Jason wasn't holding her, but I refuse to remember that.

Moping in self pity is getting me nowhere. I can't believe I'm back to this already. I need to do something productive. Before I puke. Quickly, I threw on a t shirt and jeans, and of all things, I put on my moccasins. They remind me of my heritage. I don't think anyone else here has as much Native American blood as me. Without thinking about it I switched my t shirt for a sleeveless one and put on my sleeveless faux buckskin dress.

I don't know why I did, but it looked great on me either way. Oh crap, I sound like one of my lovesick siblings- like *shudders* Drew! Somehow I managed to convince myself that I needed to train with a dress on, and practice working around a dress's limitations, since I end up in a dress quite frequently on quests, courtesy of Mom. After quickly throwing my hair (which was getting pretty long- I couldn't find any scissors without going through Travis and Connor, who wouldn't give me a pair) into a loose braid that came down to the middle of my back, I slung a bow and a quiver of arrows onto my back (I figured they were useful, and why not see if I inherited any great skill from my mortal ancestors). I continued to put on a pair of Jolly Roger earrings that Mom enchanted for a birthday present (they turn into a pair of stiletto throwing daggers on one ear, and a pair of duel stiletto close range combat daggers if I need to use two at once instead of Katoptris) and grabbed my sword. I was still talking to the Hephaestus campers about making me arm cuffs that would turn into a shield, because that would be awesome, but Valdez was the head counselor and well do I even need to explain past that?

I decided that I should practice moving around and fighting in the rigging. I jumped over Percy, who was waiting for Annabeth (who I can see running in the distance) and swung into the rat lines.

I knew I was one of the fastest in the crew from training the rest of the Aphrodite cabin, well really all we got to was getting them into passable shape, by racing up and down the ratlines, and through the rigging. And the prizes that were motivation for them were ones I really didn't want to give. But I had never done anything but run up and down them. This was the perfect time to train because between three sons (and one daughter) all being upset, each one being a child of a different brother (the girl had a younger brother by the same god) it was a lightless, moonless, starless night full of shadows and dark that I assumed was only ever present in Tartarus. The sea was tossing and turning, waves crashing onto the beach with monumental force, rocking the ship. Hard.

Not to mention the wind. Which was filling up the sails and blowing my braid straight out behind me. As well as the storm clouds crashing with thunder and electrifying the midnight blue of the sky for moments at a time with lighting. It was on the brink of raining. I could feel the wetness in the air. I could almost hear the sizzling and popping in the clouds right now because of the water and the electricity contained within them.

Perfect, right?

By the time I had processed this I was halfway up to the foretop. And I proceeded to climb back down lower. I needed to practice lower in case I fell.

And so I did. Twisting turning, I must've looked like a mad woman because I moved as if I was holding a dagger, dodging and twirling as if there were other people there. I quickly got my balance and continued moving upwards. Climbing up and down, back and forth, I learned to use my ascents and descents to my advantage; swinging around a rope pulled taut like a trapeze bar to come down as if kicking someone.

Very quickly I gathered an urge to pull out Katoptris that I couldn't resist long. For some reason, as soon as I pulled my dagger, I started hearing all the horrible things people had ever said to me, all the things that, no matter how well I hid it behind my I-don't-care-this-is-me-so-deal-with-it attitude, made me feel worthless and pathetic.

I kept reliving the moments I had tried hardest to forget in my life as I climbed. I got to the foretop and just kept climbing. Up and up and up. Never stopping. I finally found some place perfect for me that I could call home, but this is me, Piper McClean, isn't it? Nothing's ever perfect for me. I thought Jason might be the exception but I guess I was wrong, and now I sound like I'm quoting Paramore.

At this point I'm as high as I can go, and the ship is rocking violently, but I still keep my balance. That's me. Stoic, unbreakable, rock solid, unemotional Piper McClean. Because if I'm not who's going to be?

Clarisse is predictable, Annabeth is logical and calculating but cold and harsh, and Thalia is exactly what she wants to be. Katie is just like plants, completely unpredictable; sweet and kind, with a razor sharp edge you don't want to feel. So what's left for me? Bubbly Aphrodite girl? Hell no.

So I get solid unemotional rock. All this in the space of a second, I whip out my bow and nock an arrow, an arrow that even through the mayhem that is this tossing ship, hits it's mark. I launch myself into a spiral 'ninja leap' across the void between the foremast and the mainmast, unfurl in time to grab my arrow, and use it to redirect myself. Instead of landing on the maintop as would be predictable, I push myself away from the mast, and fluidly as if in one motion, catch myself on a rope just beneath it and swing myself up into a very smooth and nimble sailor's entrance through the lubber's hole. (One perk of being a movie star's daughter is that I got to hang out on sets- he worked on some movie about a sailor on an old fashioned war ship.)

Jason comes around the corner just as I land (and ironically clichéd,) before I recognize his face, I plunge my knife into his stomach.

He doesn't look mad at me or anything, just very guilty as he turns and drops simply but surprisingly gracefully down to the deck, especially since he is bleeding from his gut. I watch as he runs to the side and dives into the water. Simultaneously, he calls down a bolt of lightning. Ah, I see. But he's still not a son of Poseidon and therefore, if he doesn't get out of the water soon he'll still drown. Geez, Pipes, no time like the present to get a crash course in facing your fears. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw Jaws when I was 2, OK?)

And lightning just makes it worse, because I would hate to die by electrocution. Oh well. Even if he is a no good son of a (insert swear word of your choice here), he matters more than any of those things. And in that moment, I find myself diving into the relentless, stormy water, straight after Jason. I just swim straight down because I can't see to far in front of me because it's the middle of the night and Nico's having issues too. Luckily I found him, and I had to practically sling him around my shoulders in a fireman's carry to effectively swim for the surface.

Oh, kindly ones, now I'm stuck because he's to heavy for me to carry up the side of the ship the way I usually do with niches and the space between boards and knots and such. I don't know what possesses me to do this, but I sling him off my shoulders and hold him next to me like I'm just holding him to keep him from drifting off instead of sinking. I proceed to turn and whisper in his ear using charmspeak. I tell him to fly, and discover that even though he's unconscious my charmspeak is powerful enough that it works.

But he being in his aforementioned state of unconsciousness, the way this is accomplished is through draining my energy to him so that his son of Jupiter/Zeus voodoo can take affect. We make it up to the deck and I take a coil of spare rope and tie him to my back, climbing up the netting to where he was taking up less energy even with the added weight. Achieving this, I take Katoptris and slice through the only knot that really mattered. And I begin to charmspeak him into healing again. This draining me tremendously, I stay only until he wakes up. I had already taken his shirt off because between the hole and the blood it was ruined, and it was really just making him colder. This is how I knew that by the time he woke up it was safe for me to leave, as the gushing wound was now just a faded pink scar.

So I was the first thing he saw when he woke up. And if I know him at all, he sat up to watch me get up, turn and dive off the opposite side of the ship and swim the two miles across the bay and get out on the other side.

I run to the training ground. I have to go somewhere where I'm allowed, even expected to hit and slash at and destroy things.

Annabeth is on the far side destroying a dummy with her dagger, then picking up her design book and adding to a design for what I'm guessing is a new type of armor that protects different weak points; probably one that's lighter weight and more breathable but that still inconspicuously protects Percy's weak point. Annabeth knows as well as I do how invaluable he will be in the battle. But what good will it do if he has special armor? So she has to make something new that will be easy to make standard issue.

As I start on the far side, I work my way through a dozen invisible enemies, mainly focusing on my form, and charmspeaking myself into using both Greek and Roman forms and cadences. And it was working. But it was exhausting me, as if I wasn't exhausted enough from the day/night I've had. I ignored this fact, which was probably stupid and suicidal seeing as I hadn't eaten and if I collapsed the Romans might kill me for showing weakness.

Either way, I eventually collapsed from dizziness and fatigue into a crying heap on the ground, hugging myself. I had enough sense to pull myself back to my feet, but it was all I could do to keep my sobs relatively silent, as I stood there not even trying to stop my crying, just hugging myself. And then some conceited jerk of a person from Ares, or Mars, as it were, saw fit to swoop in and kiss me square on the lips in the middle of my openmouthed sobbing. His tongue started roaming very roughly and ungraciously through my mouth, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I bit down. Hard. And didn't let go. Ok, eventually I did let go, but at this point his tongue had been cut in two by my fury.

Simultaneously pushing him to the ground and kneeing him in the groin, I proceeded to yell, "You sick, stupid son of a (insert swear word of your choice here)! Don't you know that a rose shouldn't come without thorns?! Don't you know that I'm Jason Graces …" My voice caught here and I had to take a deep shaky, shuddering breath before I could go on. "Go away! Leave me alone! I'm sick of being the beauty queen, and having people see all of what's fake and none of what's real! I'm done. I'm not just some cheap Aphrodite girl who can't defend herself! From now on, I'm not yours, or Jason's, or anyone else's! I'm mine, I'm me. I want to be left the hell alone! Got it?"

The guy nodded mutely, turned and scrambled off through the crowd. Wait, crowd? I took a moment to register this before I started mentally screaming at myself. Way to go Piper. Amazing. This is just like it has always been. You have to do something to get any attention at all. Something off limits that no one else does that always spirals way out of control. Not even the people you love the most give you any attention after the shock and the new of what you've done this time.

Ugh, I'm talking to myself again. So now I'm a nutcase, and kleptomaniac with behavioral and civil disobedience issues. Great.

"Here's his tongue if you want to sew it back on," then I spit it out and turn and run. And again I have everybody's attention; nobody's real care, but everybody's obsession. Why can't anything go right? Why do I always have to deal with things by having my retaliation spiral out of control?

Why can't I be me and get my dad's and Jason's attention without working for it? And this is my chicken-egg dilemma that always comes full circle. Why does every bit of attention I get have to be earned? And I realize that even now I'm earning attention by running. By leaving. By being something they aren't.

**Author's Note: Tell me what you think: Review, favorite, I don't care. Flame if you must because again I don't care you're just voicing your insecurities on the subject of *wrong cue card you idiot* I really need better help around here. Mark over here (Mark waves as he cannot talk, recently having had his tongue bitten out by one Piper McClean) just ain't cutting it. But for those of you who must flame, I do have some very choice words to rainbow worthy colorfully tell you were you can shove your opinion. **

**Just. DON'T. Squee.**

**Thank you, have a nice day.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! **

**Sorry this is just another author's note, but this is the closest I can get to mass texting all of you. **

**How do like the story so far? Please review and let me know how I'm doing, what I should change, what I could do better, etc. **

**Don't squee, I hate that. If you flame, I will call you some very obscene things in some extremely foreign languages. But if you want to feel free.**

**Anyways: the main point of my review:**

**I have been nominated in the romance category of the PJO Fandom Awards! I'd love you guys votes, but actually read the stories first. I'm actually going to vote for My Version of Romeo and Juliet because it's amazing. Either way check it out. **

**Check it out and I will give you a virtual cookie.**

**Review and I will give you a virtual piece of Cheesecake Factory Hershey's Chocolate Cheesecake, which is so good any and all rules cannot apply to it.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thalia's POV**

Apparently I wasn't the only one who had a tough night, because when I woke up it wasn't past 4:45, and Piper and Annabeth were both gone. I didn't feel like changing, so I grabbed my silver circlet from the bed post and said "The Hunters of Artemis" and snapped, and between blinks I was there. My sisters. All of them were here.

Everyone was safe. This had been my routine every morning. Visit the hunt, make sure everyone was accounted for and not in need of immediate and serious medical attention, in which case I was allowed to summon Lord Apollo. This done I found an area where the moonlight reached through the branches, knelt down and plucked my circlet from my hair. I tossed it through the moonlight and if froze there, spinning in mid air, the Lieutenant's version of Iris Message when wanting to speak with Artemis.

As I waited for a slow count of ten, the circlet grew in size until it was at least as big as a normal IM, coming into focus all the while. It showed the same image it always did, the Lady Artemis in a silver outfit that subtly shifted constantly. First a chitin, then an outfit not unlike the ones we hunters wore, next a toga, and so on. She still appeared as the 12 year old girl with a tan, auburn hair and freckles that Hunted with us. The background of the image was nothingness. This was the part of her subconscious that was split from the rest in a way. This was the part of her being that remained twelve, and remained separate from whatever she might be doing so that she could keep in contact with her Hunters.

As soon as she is clear enough to actually see, I address her. "Good morning, Lady Artemis."

"Rise Lieutenant," she responds. "Is everything in order?"

"Yes, milady."

"No one is seriously injured?"

"No, milady."

"The Romans?" she questioned. Meaning did any seem to be likely candidates to join the Hunters, and how did the meeting go?

"Hard to say, possibly a daughter of Trivia, and twins of Hera's." At this Artemis merely nodded. Her Roman aspect, and therefore she, knew full well that Hera's Roman aspect, Juno, was far more disciplined and warlike. Resultantly, it was not entirely uncommon for children of Jupiter to be given to Juno to as atonement for Jupiter's misstep. Occasionally, Juno adopted those that she deemed worthy as her own children. They would still have minimal connections to the powers of the sky, but they would also have Juno's blessing. Unfortunately, they also got her opinion of their father, and men in general. Strange as it might seem for a goddess of marriage to have a general disgust for all men, when you think about it, she has watched so many men leave their wives, so many men connected to her in some way do the same thing she saw the mortal men do: leave, leave a woman hanging, just leave and walk out of their life altogether.

The angles in her facial expression really were what told me that I'd better cut to the chase fast, that Artemis wanted to know about how things went with the Romans more than she really cared about new recruit possibilities, but that she was standing on ceremony for the sake of dignity.

"Things went pretty well," one corner of my mouth drifted up into a mini smirk in response to Artemis' actions.

"They tried to pull an Atlanta attack plan on us," I revealed, grinning almost like an idiot, but my punk exterior was to solid to get quite that far. Of course, Artemis understood why I looked like the kid who stole the candy and got away with it. Because, at that moment, a girl of the same name stumbled forward from the ranks of the Hunters. A girl named Atlanta dared to speak uninvited to Lady Artemis. This girl, Atlanta was the Atlanta, a good friend of mine and also grinning like a fool.

"They tried that old thing again? You'd think that something I invented would long ago have been forgotten, seeing as I was just a "stupid girl" at the time. But of course, someone else probably took credit and named it named after me." Atlanta didn't get out much. Seeing as she had never truly broken a requirement for the Hunters of Artemis, (not counting the time she was under Aphrodite's curse) but only kept her word, Atlanta's lioness curse was neutralized by her service to Artemis, so long as she stayed with others of this service. I would miss her when I- no, I wasn't leaving anymore. That was over.

"Tell me all about it!" Artemis wore a devilish smirk, and beckoned the rest of the Hunters forward with her eyes.

Over the next few hours, I could tell that Artemis was bending not time, but the moon to make time move like molasses. I recounted the journey, and the ordeals; the whole entry affair, the Roman camp: it's layout etc. By this time I had covered just about everything there was to cover, and I told them that. Artemis gave the girls their assignment, I gave my spare circlet to Phoebe, and, as I needed practice, I air traveled back to Dimidium Castra Sanguine.

Where I saw, upon appearing in my bed room, a sleeping Nico. As in di Angelo. Like, the kid who I wanted to freaking kill right now. I mean I thought that if he was willing to go out of his way to sneak around with me, I would have at least meant enough to him for him to at least dump me first.

But no. Apparently not. Anyway, I had enough dignity to keep my cool and not completely blow up at him right then and there. Instead I just took the opportunity to use a combination of awesome demigod power, daughter of Zeus privileges, and Lieutenant of Artemis magic to do this amazing thing called take a shower.

Toweling my hair dry, I threw on one of my favorite t-shirts. Surprisingly it wasn't black, but it was just that awesome. It was a shark week t-shirt from last year, and it was navy blue, almost black. It had a open mouthed shark on it and it said 'Free Hugs' on it. Since I couldn't wear (too much) black with it, I just threw on a pair of distressed dark wash jeans and my combat boots. For jewelry I actually threw on a pair of dangle earrings; black, electric style (which just means straight line and angles) treble clefs. She still wore her Camp Half Blood necklace, which had personalized beads for all the summers she spent there as a pine tree.

Quickly, to rushed to take time for anything else, she turned to the mirror and called on the minimal control she had over wind as a daughter of Zeus and blew her hair until it stuck up sufficiently and then used her industrial strength hair spray to get it to stay.

And then…

And then she turned around and saw Nico. She wanted to do something awful. She wanted to fry him to a crisp, and then hear his apology that she would of course reject because she never was the one to be an easy catch. But the truth was she couldn't. No matter how much she kept up her tough girl I-don't-care-what-you-think-or-do-or-say-because-I-know-I'm-different-you-can-deal-with-it impression, which was pretty much true, she still had a heart and there were a select few who were close and special and important enough to her to get to her. And to tell the truth, it didn't matter if he was a friend or closer than that, he was one of those people.

So she didn't she just jumped out of porthole and spun into the air, a beautifully graceful version of herself that she never was on the ground except for in battle. But that was a deadly grace, this was a sheer beautiful kind of grace; terrifying but gorgeous. Spinning in the air like an ethereal goddess, she didn't realize what was different this time before marking the fact that she had never flown at night away from Artemis before. So this is what happened when she did that. Hmm… interesting. Spinning slowly in a circle; wind suddenly blowing up from somewhere underneath her and blowing her hair straight up into a black Medusa-esque writhing mess. The only issue was she could feel both Olympians pulling at her mind and presence.

She felt her arms spreading and straight out and could feel her clothes change into a darkish-gray Greek style chiton that blew in the insane wind. But the pull of her father and her Lady was getting stronger each side. Each attempting to overcome the other's presence and resultantly overcoming her presence. It took every ounce of her will power to remain there and in her own mind, in control of herself. Unfortunately, her best guess is that their entire presence there is to that end; overcoming her will power and invading her mind, every thought and memory; knowing her soul and purpose.

And between the two of them they were winning. Well almost. She was holding her own. Because no one could ever accuse Thalia Grace (Pine-Cone-Face, according to the annoying memory voice in the back of her mind) of being a push over who backed down without a fight, or even when she should be losing. And she somehow was aware of the fact that she couldn't think about Nico, but she hadn't actually formed a conscious coherent thought about it. Anyway, she was actually succeeding in this endeavor, knowing that if she didn't both she and Nico might end up dead.

Until Nico, who was clearly awake now, poked his head out the porthole and called, "Thalia!"

That broke her concentration on holding onto her will, which was broken now, and her control over each and every one of her memories. And just like that she knew that she was out of the Hunters, and Nico was likely doomed.

And really as much as she wanted to hate him right now she didn't. She didn't because she couldn't. And in all probability one of them might die soon.

Which was not good. Because she even more than Annabeth had absolutely no stability in her life. And part of it was her insatiable desire for power made everything fall apart.

But more than that, she knew it was because she did it on purpose. As much as she hated herself later for it, every time she started getting close to anyone or anything (even if it was as friends) she screwed it up subconsciously on purpose. She ruined it and left and kept stability completely out of her life.

She blocked it out because the first and last time she chose to even try stable, it fell apart without her screwing it up. She chose to try something that might last, he left. He chose to leave to abandon her. Everyone did.

And now the one time she tried stability, something that might last again, he would leave. Nico would leave her sometime in the next few days.

Oh, it wasn't like he would choose to, or like he could stop it, but in the next few days one of them would die. And she would be left all alone again. All alone with no one who she could really truly depend on, not even Annabeth because that wasn't fair to either of them. Because 10 to 1 one of them would die in the war with the giants.

In the last second before whatever was suspending her in mid air ceased to perform this duty her last thoughts were, 'I am all alone.'

And then she stayed limp as whatever suspended her stopped doing so and she snapped back with a jerk. And fell. Fell the hundred or so feet down to the water. Falling, falling, falling until she hit the freezing cold, cement hard water.

Her eyes rolled back into her head as her exhaustion fought with her will power and she consciously decided to stop fighting and submit the blackness that was already tingeing the edges of her world gray.

And the last thing she heard before prying the last of her stubborn metaphorical fingers off her waking consciousness was a splash.

But by the time his arms engulfed her she was completely unaware, unconscious.

And even then she new it was Nico and that hurt her even more.


End file.
